I volunteered at an elephant rescue camp in Thailand recently, and what I learned disturbed me to the core. Most people (including myself) know about how they are killed in Africa for their ivory, but what I learned about the Asian elephants is just as bad.
Elephants are very family oriented and they nurse for three years. The females stay with their moms for life, and the males are usually pushed out on their own at a later age (between age 7-15) in an organic way. However, in order for the elephants to be obedient to the Mahout (their caretaker) they take them at a very young age from their moms. They take them to the jungle, tie them up and beat them or poke them, they starve them and do horrible things to break the elephant’s spirit, so that they will obey. Sadly, many young elephants do not survive…it is called “Pajan”.
This horrible act is done for any elephants that are “servicing” humans, including the following: being used for rides; “playing ball” in a show; acting as street “clowns”; and supposedly “painting”.
The ones that are “artists” are being continuously poked by their Mahouts, to keep performing. The elephants that we ride suffer an additional torture so that humans can ride on them: they have ropes tied to their bodies and a heavy saddle is strapped on their backs. Their backs are not meant to carry such heavy things for so many hours. The same saddles are used for the elephants trekking in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, India (where they serve in a ceremony where they are dressed up and carry things on their heads), Sri Lanka, Laos, and Indonesia. These elephants go for extended periods of time without water, food or medical assistance.
The first time I visited Thailand I thought the elephants liked being around humans. They are strong and big. I had no idea what they endured.
So now that you know as well, please choose to go to camps that treat the elephants with love and respect. You can walk with the elephants beside them not on them. If there will be more demand to walk side by side rather than riding them, more elephant facilities will adopt this behaviour. Also, please don’t support anyone using an elephant as a clown or “artist.”
Thank you for reading this,
Namaste
